Many of today's commercial integrated circuit (IC) devices and multi-chip modules (MCM) cannot be utilized in deep space and earth orbiting applications because of radiation induced single event latchup (SEL). The commercial IC devices are developed and manufactured for the computer and mass market applications and cannot withstand the effects of radiation induced single event latchup from either the natural space environment caused by solar flares, galactic cosmic radiation and the Van Allen electron and proton belts or man-made radiation induced events (neutrons and gamma radiation).
Common methods of preventing SEL degraded performance are to design special radiation tolerant integrated circuits. As an example Bulucea, et. al in U.S. Pat No. 5,441,900, Div. of U.S. Pat. No. 5,384,477, uses source/drain masks to locally implant the minority carrier lifetime reducer (MCLR) before the source/drain dopants are implanted. This requires control of the die mask production process and production of the die. Another method is to implement system level monitoring and system or subsystem level shutdown of latched circuitry. Kang in U.S. Pat. No. 5,552,338 uses a fuse to limit the current through the device. This has the disadvantage of being a non-recoverable latchup unless the fuse is reset.
Both of these solutions have performance and economic disadvantages. The inventions described herein provide improved SEL performance of an integrated circuit device, or grouping of devices (i.e. MCM) through the addition of active electronic circuitry integrated within the IC or MCM package. This circuitry and the protected device can be incorporated within the same physical dimensions and electrical configuration as the original integrated circuit device. The circuitry provides protection through the automatic limiting and removal of power during an SEL event, provides a sufficient off-time for the device to naturally reset from the event and automatically provides for power-up of the device. In addition, an SEL event monitoring signal can be added through the addition (or re-assignment) of one device output pin.